Semantic peculiarities of the English article and ways of its translation
Дипломная работа - Иностранные языки
Другие дипломы по предмету Иностранные языки
by pre-posed and postposed identifiers simultaneously (as in the last example четвертий > унiверсал < уряду УHP). Or such an example: the noun congress or its Ukrainian variant зСЧзд when used out of a context remains absolutely nonrelated to any concretely identified event. Even when preceded by a numeral (the first or the second congress) it remains far from semantically identified. Only when explicated by one more identifier - the first congress of ecologists, the noun congress becomes more or less exhaustively identified. Similarly in Ukrainian where the noun з'СЧзд becomes definite (or indefinite) when it is explicitly identified: з'СЧзд екологiв, з'СЧзд екологiв УкраСЧни, черговий/ позачерговий з'СЧзд екологiв УкраСЧни, etc.category of indefiniteness apart from being indicated in English by the indefinite article a/an, may also be made explicit by the indefinite pronouns any, some, etc., and by the numeral one as well as by the indefinite article plus an adjectival, participial or any other adjunct. Eg: There is some boy wants to see you. (King) "Was there a Mr Palgrave?" (H.E. Bates) - "there's a marvelously good restaurant called L'Ocean about six or seven miles down the coast". (Ibid.) Cf. in Ukrainian: Там нiякого Micmepa Палгрейва не було?expression of indefiniteness in Ukrainian is likewise realized with the help of the indefinite pronouns якийсь (якась, якесь), through the indefinite numeral один (одна, одне) or via the indefinite pronouns якийсь/ якась, якесь, plus the adjuncts expressing the characteristic features of the person or object. Eg: Якийсь Петренко там чекаСФ на вac. Був собi один чоловiк i мав вiн два сини. Навiть один страшний день вiйни запам'ятався кожному навiки.English where indefiniteness is expressed via the corresponding markers, in Ukrainian it may sometimes be expressed also through grammatical shifting of the indefinite noun into the final position of the sentence [39, c.417]. For example:
The door opened and the teacher entered the classroom.Дверi вiдчинилися i вчитель увiйшов до класу.
To express indefiniteness, the noun will be shifted to the final position:
The door opened and a teacher entered the classroom.Дверi вiдчинилися i до класу ввiйшов учитель.
Therefore, the category of definiteness and indefiniteness is equally pertained to both contrasted languages [28, c.95].
2.2 Rendering of the contextual meaning of the definite and indefinite articles
researchers do not pay enough attention to the translation of the articles. But nevertheless some of them (I.V.Korunets, V.I.Karaban) [28,39] consider that when rendering the lexical meaning of the definite and indefinite articles into Ukrainian one should consider that they are meaningful and attention should be payed to their functional meanings in the sentences or word-combinations. of the researches who supports the idea of the necessity of translating definite and indefinite articles is Korunets. He thinks that the article, both the definite and indefinite, is a functional word serving to identify or determine the noun (cf. to work-the work), the superlative degree of its quality (the tallest tree) or the order of nouns in a word-group (the first step) or in a row of similar nouns. In some prepositional phrases and word-combinations the definite and indefinite articles, however, may change their lexico-grammatical nature (become a particle), as in the expression the more, the better (чим бiльше, тим краще), or acquire some peculiar grammatical, functional and lexical meaning (the Browns/Petrenkos подружжя Браунiв/ Петренкiв); the article may be lexicalized as in the Alps/the Carpathians Альпи/Карпати, at the baker's/butcher's у пекаря/ м'ясника (в хлiбному /м'ясному магазинi). Such and the like lexicalized articles, naturally, in no way weaken or lose their determining, i.e., grammatical function. As a result, their lexical meaning is inseparable in these cases from their functional meaning. The determining and lexicalizing nature of the definite and indefinite articles also manifests itself in several set expressions (cf. in the cart, in a word, what a pity, all of a sudden, etc.)
1). On several other occasions the definite/indefinite article may acquire some lexical meaning in contextual environment (only for a time) and thus serve as a peculiar means of expressive connotation1 . This kind of articles is each time endowed in different contextual environments with some quite different meaning, which may be, nevertheless, of implicitly different semantic and lexico-grammatical/ logically-grammatical type, as for instance, that of a demonstrative, possessive, identifying, indefinite or some other pronoun: Cf.: He lived more poorly than an artisan. (S. Maugham) Жив вiн бiднiше за будь-якого ремiсника. Carot never sold a picture. (Ibid) Каро не продав жодноСЧ картини/нi однiСФСЧ картини.
) That of an adjunctive/identifying adjective and a specifying or modal particle:... and she had acquired a reputation for neatness and (Maugham) i вона здобула за ретельно виконану роботу солiдну репутацiю. She would have called him a fish. (Carrol) Бонi назвала б його просто карасем.
) A distinctly nominal or rather nominalizing meaning. The latter can be explicitly illustrated in the following sentence. He (Mr. Gills) took it (the bottle) up and having surveyed and smelt it said with extraordinary expression: The? The, returned the instrument maker. (Ch. Dickens)real meaning of thus emphasized article can be disclosed only in the sentence that follows, where Mr. Gills fills the glass with liquour and drinks it. Without the broader context it would certainly be impossible to guess what this definite nominalizing article stands for in the extract. Nor is it always easy for our students to identify in some sentences the rhematic and the thematic function of article; and to express their meaning. Therefore, the occurrence of lexically meaningful articles is not occasional or accidental, for it is predetermined by context. Due to this, the number of lexically meaningful articles in different words substyles often varies. Their occurrence can also depend on the personal taste of the author who may be more or less inclined to use them in his narrative. But whatever their quantity, none of the lexically meaningful articles should be ignored о overlooked in the passage under translation and its meaning must be correctly rendered in the target language.order to faithfully convey each kind of the aforementioned meaningful articles, the student will be advised first of all to subject the whole passage, which is to be translated, to a thorough content analysis in order to select possible lexical substitutes for the article in the target language. The substitutes in languages like Ukrainian (Russian), which have no functionals of the kind, can differ by their logico-grammatical nature, as well as be contextually synonymous Because of this the choice of the contextually equivalent substitutes depends much on the translator who, when selecting a fitting lexical equivalent for the article, has to take some factors into consideration These include first of all the semantic factor playing a predominant role, and the stylistic factor eliminating an unnecessary repetition of the same equivalent substitute in sentences close by. In other words, the co-occurrence of the same synonymous substitutes must b strictly regulated. Besides, the translator has to keep it in mind, that some contextual meanings of the definite article may seem similar 1.1 those of the indefinite article and vice versa. Hence, the translator should be no less attentive to the style of his target language pas sage which in its turn will help him achieve a faithful translation of sentences or the passage as a whole, where both the defining and the nominalizing lexically charged articles are used.conveying the lexical meanings of the definite and indefinite articles into Ukrainian, attention should be paid to their functional meanings in the sentence/word-combinations. Thus, the meanings of the definite article are usually expressed through different Ukrainian attributive pronouns, adjectives, participles, adverbs or cardinal/ordinal numerals. The meaning of the numeral one, on the other hand, is always expressed only through the indefinite article, which is historically derived from this part of words. Cf.: Most of felllows in the Quarters share a studio. (Maugham) Багато хлопцiв з латинського кварталу орендують гуртом одну студiю.
The nominalizing articles are mostly rendered through the parts of words having the functions of attributes to the noun: ... I believe that a young person in a city tea-shop has left her situation. (Maugham) ...Гадаю, в однiй iз кав'ярень якась офiцiантка зникла.emphatically used articles, on the other hand, have usually particles for their contextual equivalents in Ukrainian: But I must content myself with a few paragraphs. (Maugham) Жаль, що можу обмежитись лише кiлькома епiзодами.rhematic use of the articles introducing the new information, a new core of an utte